AMA: I Saw Romero's Lost Film Amusement Park

Hello there HPoTD:

I live in Pittsburgh which you can imagine has some perks if you're Romero nerd such as myself. Hell I even live about two streets away from Tom Savini. About a year back I had tickets to a screening of Day of the Dead which was kickass as it had a Q&A with Lori Cardille and John Amplass. If I recall Russ Striener was also there. More notably though this was the premier screening of The Amusement Park which was filmed in 1974 and mostly unseen since that night. Might have some pics to prove it if you need it but I can take some Qs from the curious.

What did you think of Amusement Park?

I really dug it! It's not like a normal Romero movie, I'd saw its closer to a Twilight Zone episode. Maybe more properly a Tales from the Dark Side episode. I'll saY my girlfriend who attended and isn't much of a Romero/zombie fan came with me and said it was his scariest work.

I'm looking forward to it, but the amount of hype that's been built up around it means I'm bound for a disappointment. Still - as I said - when there's a way to see it I will do it. Kind of into a Romero-groove at the moment.

Odd to think nearly 50yrs on most of us (still) haven't had the chance to see it!

Like Ned, as soon as there's a way to see it, I wanna see it. :)

I presume, being that it was made in 1974, it's got that mid-70s Romero vibe in terms of the cinematography and editing in particular? I've always been a big fan of Romero's editing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MinionZombie

Like Ned, as soon as there's a way to see it, I wanna see it. :)

I presume, being that it was made in 1974, it's got that mid-70s Romero vibe in terms of the cinematography and editing in particular? I've always been a big fan of Romero's editing.

---

His editing style was awesome. One of the big reasons why his newer films never fully clicked with me. Felt like everything else once other editors touched his work.

I wanna see Amusement Park just like everyone else. Hopefully one day!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MinionZombie

Like Ned, as soon as there's a way to see it, I wanna see it. :)

I presume, being that it was made in 1974, it's got that mid-70s Romero vibe in terms of the cinematography and editing in particular? I've always been a big fan of Romero's editing.

---

I can tell you it felt very Crazies/Martin in the looks department

Trailer.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MinionZombie

Trailer.

---

@0:56 is that one of the bikers from Dawn?

https://www-ihorror-com.cdn.ampproje...compressed.jpg

It’s on Shudder June 8th!

Edit: Thanks, MZ!

I'll watch it sans hyperbole. If this film is a masterpiece.....HA....whatever.

I'm going in expecting shit like 'Season of the Witch" or "There's Always Vanilla."

I don't really like this crap as much as I once did nor am I as tolerant of "low budget" film making as I once was. Life just keeps changing you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike70

I'll watch it sans hyperbole. If this film is a masterpiece.....HA....whatever.

I'm going in expecting shit like 'Season of the Witch" or "There's Always Vanilla."

I don't really like this crap as much as I once did nor am I as tolerant of "low budget" film making as I once was. Life just keeps changing you.

---

I love Season of the Witch lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moon Knight

I love Season of the Witch lol

---

First time I saw it I was quite disappointed, but was also going in expecting something entirely different - and I was a snotty teenager at the time - hardly the right audience or mindset for it, although I did find the home invasion sequence to be thrillingly edited and shot.

Fast forward many years to, well, last year, and I checked it out again in its longer form (although I think I might have seen that version all those years ago on Channel 4) and found it to be a really fascinating film. The daughter is of the new generation and has all these freedoms that the mother has just missed out on, not quite young enough for but still not quite old enough to completely miss out on. It's a really interesting look at suburban women of the 1970s, especially against the backdrop of the time and what all happened with the ERA etc. There were some really sly ideas in there too, such as when she's buying all this witchcraft stuff with a credit card, and there's some really nice bits of dream/reality melding going on.

I also ended up enjoying, albeit to a slightly lesser degree, There's Always Vanilla. I saw it for the first time last year, and would have no doubt hated it if I'd seen it when I was a teenager just as I was getting started on Romero's filmography. It's a really scruffy film in some ways, having been kind of cobbled together, but it's a great time capsule movie - of Pittsburgh in the very early 1970s - and to see Romero experimenting with his craft. Again, there's some really interesting sequences, such as the scene where they get to know each other and the whole thing is just questions and no answers. It's also a nifty and no doubt quite authentic glimpse inside the world of regional TV advertising. In some ways it makes quite a good thematic double bill with Season of the Witch.

I did a review of SOTW here - https://deadshed.blogspot.com/2020/1...-1972-blu.html

And I also did a review of There's Always Vanilla here - http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2020/08...ge-romero.html

I haven't seen Season of the Witch since I was in my teens around 20+ years ago. I HATED it. I have it, but I doubt I will ever watch it again. There's Always Vanilla was a turd too, but I did get slightly more out of it. Seeing shots of Pittsburgh and picking out the folks involved in making NOTLD were honestly the most interesting things about it, though. The fact that the beautiful Judith Ridley starred in it made it a little better, too.:D

I'm sure I will give The Amusement Park a watch eventually. I don't have super high hopes for it, but it does look kind of interesting.